Bay Area Tuners

[JuxtaGT]

Thought this might be a good thread to start.

If any of you locals have had your LGT (or other Subaru's I suppose) EcuTEK-ed, Protuned, Reflashed, or ________ in the blanked. Post where you got it done, how it went, dyno plots, general cost, would you recommend them, etc. etc.

Planning on getting a Protune at some point within the next year, but for now I'm going to be Cobb Stg.2 just as soon as Crucial finishes thier mid-pipes.

[Crucial Racing]

As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY choice is Ed! That would be Ed of www.EQTuning.com (http://www.EQTuning.com), btw.

I have been tuned by two other major tuners in the Bay Area and went to Ed the first time in, I think, June. The experience was GREAT. Not only was the tune better and much more personalized than any other tune I've had or heard of, but Ed is a super nice guy and a true perfectionist. He truly cares about your car... maybe even more than you do. He will charge you for two hours and if it takes four to get the tune PERFECT he will not make you pay for the extra time... and he wont just stop after the two hours like every other tuner will and leave your car "good enough"... really, crazy perfectionist. If he knows it can be better, he will spend the time to make it so.

The driveability of the car on partial and full throttle -- in and out of boost -- was greatly improved over my previous tune. The car was smoother and more powerful. A lot more powerful, actually. I made more power with my setup than anybody thought I should, including me. Not only that, but it's a completely and totally safe tune. There is more on the table but Ed knows exactly when to stop. He's not after numbers, he's after the best possible tune with an appropriate margin of safety for a street car.
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So....... Ed prefers to road tune up in Davis. He has roads up there in farmland that he uses... long, straight, no traffic, no houses, etc for miles on end. A road tune truly produces the best, smoothest possible tune! A dyno only simulates driving on the road, and even a really nice dyno like a Mustang doesn't do a great job of that. Dyno tuning is a comprimise and is done only because most of the time road tuning is a logistical nightmare. Ed's pretty lucky up there in Davis with quality rural roads like that to use.

BUT -- if anybody prefers being on a dyno, he can come down and use the Mustang at Gruppe-S. It costs a touch more because of the dyno rental fees, but some people like rollers...

Jeremy

[nKoan]

I haven't gotten mine tuned yet (and I probably won't head all the way to the Bay anyways), but other tuners in the Bay Area are Gruppe-S and Fine Line Imports.

From what I've heard from the Impreza community is that Gruppe-S does great work. Mike has tuned multiple friends of mines cars; WRX, STi, Legacy GT and Evos. No one has been anything but happy with their tunes from Mike. FLI customers, similarly, seem very happy. They work on a wide range of imports as well, not just the turbo/awd ones.

Ed from EQ seems to have developed quite a following lately as well. If I were more inclined to shop around (sorry, I have already made my decision), EQ would be worth considering. I would urge you to use a dyno, though, as my father routinely drives around the backroads of Davis (farm consultant) and the thought of road tuning in Davis affects me on a personal level. Risky personal decisions aside, though, Ed sounds like a pretty good tuner and a nice guy.

[Crucial Racing]

Yes, Mike has tuned my car as well and does a good job. I have only good things to say about him, but only great things to say about Ed. I have also always liked supporting the small guy as long as the quality is there, and Ed backs it up like nobody else.

Road tuning consists of a pull in 3rd gear, then making adjustments, then a pull in 3rd gear, etc. The visibility there allows for easily making sure that there are no other cars on the strip of road being used. It's always a trade off. The dyno is safe [except for the extremely rare occurance of the car flying off with the wheels spinning 80 mph], but the "hot lap" basically every tuner in the world tells you to take to "test" the car immediately after it comes off of the dyno isn't... especially since almost all of these shops are in highly populated areas. The tunes end up a bit different. It's a give and take.

Anyway if we're going to list all of the Bay Area tuners, there's S-Squared and Vishnu to be considered also.

Jeremy

[nKoan]

S-Squared isn't exactly in the Bay Area (but a worthwile shop IMO).

Vishnu, on the other hand, isn't really worth mentioning since Shiv doesn't give two flying ***** about Subaru's anymore.

[Crucial Racing]

whoa you can swear on here? Didn't know that :lol:

...well I promised I would never comment negatively about another Subaru-related company, so no comment about the Vishnu thing. Except I wont argue with you :lol:...

SS is Sacramento, which is like right by Davis, so I guess that would leave out Ed also... except I think he's worth the drive obviously :). So I cheated and went "greater bay area" ;)

Jeremy

btw Juxta -- 5MT highflow midpipes should arrive this week, maybe early next week. Soon, soon! I've got racepipes officially started for the 5MT as well but those are closer to 5-6 wks out...

[nKoan]

whoa you can swear on here? Didn't know that :lol:


:lol: me neither. I'm so used to getting censored, that I don't self censor much anymore.

To be honest, yeah, I've known a few of the guys from S-Squared since high school, and so I fully trust them. If you are up for a drive to Sacramento, I think they are worth it. Fully professional shop, yet not so big that you'll get forgotten.

As for Vishnu, I also don't like to say anything bad about Subaru tuners that are part of the community, but since they pulled out of the community I have no problems noting that fact :lol:

[pleiad7]

I got my FXT tuned by Vishnu last year, and while I'm extremely pleased with the result, I honestly cannot recommend Shiv for the same reasons as stated above. Yes, he is a very experienced and talented tuner, and he listened closely to my objectives and tuned the car accordingly - all in all my experience was very good at the time. But he's also the biggest primadonna in the industry and has simply moved on from Subaru since then. Vishnu's customer service and support has always been mediocre at best, but now that they're obviously making money hand over fist they just don't give a rat's ass anymore. http://www.legacygt.com/forums/images/smilies/icon_frown.gif

[JuxtaGT]

Vishnu was one of the few names I knew when I got my LGT. I spent a buch of time researching Shiv and reading a lot of his posts and comments. Honestly, the guy sounds like an arrogent a**, I don't care how good he is at tuning. If it was my money, I'd pick someone who cares, but this doesn't sound like a problem anymore.

:munch:

Thanks for the comments guys, keep 'em coming!